Range
by aptasi
Summary: Hey kid, let me explain to you why our boss hates guns so much.


Summary: Hey kid, let me explain to you why our boss hates guns so much.

Disclaimer: I'm just a fanfiction writer, all hail the rightful owners. In addition to Carmen Sandiego , I also borrowed some of the material from other crime dramas, most notably the Closer, though this concept is common is almost all of them.

Warning: Weapons content and references to murder of a child.

* * *

Look, I know you're new here. I don't expect you to figure out the rules by yourself, but I'm telling you.

Don't carry guns.

Don't own guns.

Don't even think about guns.

Why, you ask? Carmen hates them.

Fine, don't believe me. But maybe I can help you understand. Let me tell you a story first. Hey, kid, sit still! I'm not doing this for my health you know.

I'm getting to it!

So this one time, Lars, Moe, and I were at the firing range. We knew we weren't supposed to have guns at work, but we weren't at work so we figured we were in the clear. Anyhow, the Boss found out where we were and showed up.

"Want a shot, Boss?" Lars offers, as if she'd touch one of those things with a ten-foot pole.

Her mouth just tightened up like she was eating a lemon, and she told him "no thank you," like she was trying to freeze him in place with her voice.

Then Carmen turned to leave.

"Because she'll miss." I hear one of them mutter. Idiots…

Big mistake. No one gets away with challenging Carmen like that. That's another thing you'd do well to remember, kid. Make your life easier, let me tell you.

So Carmen was mad right, her eyes were flashing. She took the weapon, ran through the safety protocols, and started shooting at the target, without saying another word to us.

What do mean, did she miss? Carmen's good. I mean scary good. As in, ten shots all ten through the same tiny hole, right in the center. They were stacked on top of each other like Robin Hood's arrows. What do you mean who's Robin Hood? Kids these days…

Anyhow, then the Boss put down that weapon and booked it out of there like the cops were chasing her. Like a fool, I followed her.

When I caught up with her… hey look, she moves fast. OK? ... She was around back getting sick.

Carmen doesn't get sick? Hey normally I'd agree with you, kid, but she did this time.

So I'm about to backtrack in a hurry, but then I realize she's already seen me. So I give her my handkerchief to wipe her mouth with. It's my good one too, but I figure Carmen's got more class in the contents of her stomach than I've got in my whole body.

I said "You really hate guns huh?"

She laughed kind of funny and said "Yes, I really hate them."

So, I asked her why and she didn't want to tell me. That was no surprise. I was just lucky the Boss didn't throw a clue at me and tell me to figure it out myself. But I guess I caught her without one because she figured out I wasn't going anywhere and filled me in.

Carmen said, "Back when I was a detective, I worked a case. A group of teenagers robbed a convenience store. They had guns, but they weren't supposed to be loaded… were just supposed to be for show."

The way she said that just made a chill run down my spine and I had an inkling where she was going.

"They didn't see the manager's daughter. She was behind the shelves, and when she screamed it spooked one of the boys, he was just 14, in the group. He pulled the trigger and it turned out the gun was loaded."

My heart just dropped, kid, let me tell you. The boss looked so tired and beat up…

"I had to sit with their leader, in interrogation, when he realized that his choice to pull that armed robbery had killed that little girl. I saw his face. That's never happening to me…" Carmen vowed. "I may be a criminal, but, God help me, I'm no murderer."

I didn't know what to say there, but I tried. "Carmen," I said "No one wants to hurt kids."

She shook her head and swore under her breath and said "Half the people who chase me are children. I put their lives in danger every day. What kind of monster does that make me?"

Well I don't know much but I know there's no good answer to that question. So I ask my own instead. "Keeping the weapons away will protect them?"

Carmen answered, real quiet. "I hope so."

So I promised her, I'd make you all obey. You listen to me, kid. You don't touch guns, understand?


End file.
